An Unexpected Time Travel
by N7Tenshei
Summary: Time travel was not something Maxine Crow and William Jace signed up for. But when Maxine's father built a time machine powered by an artifact and needed someone to test it, they didn't have much of a choice. Now stuck in Europe centuries before their time, they must travel with 13 dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit to find a way home.


**An Unexpected Time Travel**

_Summary: Time travel was not something Maxine Crow and William Jace signed up for. But when Maxine's father built a time machine powered by an artifact and needed someone to test it, they didn't have much of a choice. Now stuck in Europe centuries before their time, they must travel with 13 dwarves, a wizard, and a hobbit to find a way home_.

**DISCLAIMER: I don't the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings in any way. If I said I did, then I would be sued for possibly millions of dollars.**

**Chp. 1: A Day at the Office**

Dark grey clouds covered Toronto like a thick cloak, covering the city in darkness and gallons upon gallons of water. The light from the sun could not penetrate through. Not even the streetlights and headlights of passing cars could break through the curtains of rain. This was the perfect time to commit a crime for no one would be able to see or hear from the roar of the thunder above.

Which is exactly what went through the minds of Maxine Crow and William Jace.

Standing in an old alley, the two adults stood. William leaning against the wall in a bored manner; his dirty blond hair covered by a damp navy blue hood and his green eyes peering out from underneath. The shadows of the building and the overall overcast gave his tanned skin a sickly colour and intensified the displeasing look on his face.

"Max would you hurry it up!" He complained to the woman before him. William did not enjoy the feeling of cold water, and it was beginning to grate on his nerves the more he stood in the rain.

There was a huff of annoyance from Maxine. Even though her amber eyes were hidden under the old black fedora she wore during work, William could tell those eyes were blazing in his direction. "Patience is a virtue, Will. After all," Max gestured to a whimpering mass a few feet in front of her. "Someone needs to be taught a lesson. Isn't that right, Mr. Welps?"

Daniel Welps was a rich businessman that lived in the GTA. To the public: he was a generous man who donated millions of dollars to charities. But to anyone who looked at his files: it was a different story. Through a series of loopholes and under the table transactions, Daniel was able donate as much money as he wanted and secretly steal as much money as he wanted from the charity. In reality, this caused multiple charities to lose more cash than they originally started with before Welps intervened.

The man thought he could get away with it and no one would be the wiser. Unfortunately for him, luck was not on his side this time.

Alicia Hale, a modest living American, had discovered that her only daughter, Kate, was diagnosed with Leukemia. The only possible treatment was chemotherapy. However, because they lived in America and had no health insurance, Alicia couldn't afford the treatment. It appeared as though Kate was going to die.

But in an act of kindness, Alicia's neighbours, friends, and family started a charity to help pay for Kate's chemotherapy. Luck was beginning to shine on the poor girl's side after all. Until Daniel Welps interfered.

In America for a business trip, Daniel had heard about the charity and the $50, 000 in it. Seeing this as another scam in the works Mr. Welps decided to 'help the poor child' and donate $10, 000. While in reality he stole $30, 000 and flew off to Canada before anyone could suspect him.

Unable to pay entirely for the treatment, Alicia watched her daughter die slowly from Leukemia a few months later. The grief was too much for the woman's sanity and when she had found out what Welps had done, she was demanding for blood.

And this was where William and Maxine came in. Being hit men in the GTA, they were the closest to where Daniel Welps lived and worked. Through research and various phone calls, Alicia had hired the two to kill the whimpering man that keeled before Maxine's feet.

"Please," he whimpered, "Show some mercy on this poor soul." Welps' plead fell on deaf ears. Through the rain and thunder he could hear the click of a magnum pistol. "Please!" He nearly screamed.

Max's nose crinkled in distaste at the businessman. "I don't know." She drawled in a bored tone, "We are being paid quite a lot for this job."

"Then I'll double it! Triple it even." Daniel's posture slowly began to perk in hope. "I-I have the money; lots of money! More than that chef could ever have!"

A harsh laugh escaped Maxine's throat at his claim, "Yes, you have lots of money alright. All those years of stealing from the less fortunate does tend to do that." She could not believe how this man had the guts to brag about his illegal wealth and then rub it in the face of someone who lost her only child. It was just plain sick.

Daniel didn't have the same idea as her because he shrunk from the sudden outburst. "B-but," he stuttered, "I-I am a businessman. It's my job to make money."

"That is true." William hissed from his place at Daniel's left against the wall. "But it's not your job to steal from those whose lives depend on those donations."

"They were already going to die anyway." Shivered Welps, "Why waste the money on dying deadbeats?" A loud bang echoed throughout the alley and Welps jumped. A bullet had hit the paved ground and lodged itself between the concrete; right next to the businessman.

A deadly silence settled over the hit men, none uttering a word. William remained silent while his posture was rigid as stone and his green eyes shined fiercely under his hood. Maxine's right hand, the one clutching the magnum, had lost its olive skin colour and turned to an ash grey. She was clutching the gun so hard that the tips of her fingers and knuckles were white.

"I think," Started Maxine coldly, "That I wasted enough time on this rat-faced jackal." She turned to her partner, "Don't you agree, Will?" Said man could feel the hate and anger rolling off Max in waves and he couldn't blame her. William wanted to see that man dead too, along with Alicia Hale in U.S.A. He had no objections to his partner's decision. But sobbing rat in the suit didn't agree.

"NO! Please no! I-" Daniel's last words were cut off by the sound of gunfire. For a brief second the corpse stayed in its kneeling position; the look of fear written across the dead man's face. A stream of blood poured freely from the hole in his head, tainting the skin red. Then he lurched forward and collapsed to the ground with a sick splat.

In deep satisfaction, Max stuck her gun back in its holster under the black leather of her jacket. In a light clapping motion, she tried her best to remove any trace of gun powder from her hands. It was moments like these that she wished she had remembered to wear gloves. It took less time to take them off then to wipe the powder from her bare hands.

"You certainly took your time on that one." She heard William say through the sheets of rain as he casually strolled up beside her.

"Yeah," Maxine sighed dramatically, "Thought I could scare him into seeing the error of his ways before his death. It turns out he's too stupid for that."

William let out a small humorous laugh. "True." Stated the blonde casually, "But it was funny to see how close he was to wetting himself."

That earned a giggle from the amber eyed woman. "I think he actually did, we just couldn't see it due to the rain."

"Damn you, Mother Nature!" William pointed at the dark sky in accusation. "I was so close to actually seeing someone piss themselves in fear. But no, you had rain, didn't you?" He continued to shake his cold wet fist at the sky until a hand came smacking him at the back of his head.

"Knock it off, Will." Said Maxine, only small trace of humour left in her voice. "We still have a job to do before we head to the set. Or have you forgotten?"

"No," The blonde sighed in disappointment, "I didn't." Carefully, William took out a flashlight, a pair of tweezers, rubber gloves and a small plastic bag. Even though they were hit men for hire, Maxine and William were not mindless killers. None of them wanted time in jail or for anyone to find out about their secret. So they took precautions such as taking all of the bullets from the scene of the crime, killing whenever it was raining heavily, and wearing gloves when tampering with evidence. Without the bullets and their casings, the police wouldn't have a lead on what type of bullet and gun the suspect (or suspects in their case) had. And with the rain washing away any trace of the two at the crime scene, they wouldn't be possible suspects. But to be on the safe side when William removed the bullets and casings from the crime scene, he wore gloves to leave no fingerprints. It was a foolproof plan that kept them away from jail for quite some time.

"So how long will this take?" Maxine asked in a weary tone. While tampering with the evidence seemed simple, it could possibly take forever depending on what their target did. And there wasn't enough time this morning because they had to be at class for 8:00 a.m and Maxine didn't want to be late.

An obvious fact about Maxine was how she worried endlessly when it came to her work. She was responsible and always worked hard, not letting anyone help her. It was a stubborn streak that William had to deal with and it annoyed the young man once in a while. But it did make Maxine more respectable because of how her stubbornness made her loyal to friends and family. So William was willing to put up with Maxine's antics.

Now wearing the rubber gloves, William handed Maxine the flashlight for her to hold. "This should take a few minutes at least." Knowing exactly what Maxine would say next, he interrupted by saying, "We still have plenty of time, Max. Don't worry."

While William was also a hard worker, he had a laidback attitude. It was surprising to see how he could laugh at the thought of tampering with the crime scene as if it was not needed yet put the extra effort into discarding the evidence. Not to mention he was incredibly loyal to the people he cared about and wouldn't abandon them. In a way, these two people were alike in some aspects, but different in others. There was no telling when they would argue or get along at certain times. And it seemed this time they were getting along.

From his crouching position next the body, William asked, "Could you shine the light over here please?"

With a roll of her eyes, Maxine aimed the flashlight at Daniel Welps' bleeding head. "Sometimes I wonder why you are so easy going. You could be on your deathbed and it wouldn't matter."

"Well," William began as he stuck the tweezers into the bullet wound, "If I am on my deathbed then I'd know once I die, I'll come back to finish off whatever I started with. I'd just need to wait for my new body to grow enough to hold tools properly." He gave the bullet a pull and when it wasn't coming out, his eyebrows furrowed. "God, this bullet is one stubborn little bastard." With a little more leverage, William gave the bullet another firm yank and pulled it out with a crack from the skull.

"Oh no." Chuckled Maxine, ignoring the cracking sound from the skull, "Don't tell me you believe in reincarnation." William, who was placing the bullet in the plastic bag, looked up with a brow raised.

"So?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "You gotta believe in something." He looked down again and continued his work. "That's one." William said once the bullet was placed in the bag.

Maxine let out a snort. "But reincarnation? Seriously? What if you come back as an animal? Or an insect?" Will cleared his throat and pointed it at the ground. With a flick of her wrist, Max brought the light to the bullet lodged in the pavement. "You can't do any type of human labour as a butterfly."

"Then that'll be my vacation until I'm reincarnated as a human." Will stated happily at her.

It wasn't unusual for the pair to talk about random subjects while working. It usually helped deal with the thought of killing people in cold blood. When they both started working together, they were complete strangers to each other. But after a few jobs here and there, they knew everything about the other. William knew all of Maxine's secrets and she knew his. Through their jobs as hit men, they figuratively became brother and sister; which was one of the greatest things that came from this type of work besides the pay.

As William pulled the piece of lead out of the pavement, there was a brief pause. Then a: "That's two. Now where are the casings?"

"There." Said Maxine, gesturing to their left with the flashlight. There was a flash as the light, through the rain, touched the two metal casings lying on the ground.

A smile stretched across William's face, "Thanks." He said and walked over to the casings. He crouched down, gathered the casings in his rubber clad hands and placed them in the little plastic bag. "There, now we can go."

A surge of relief filled Maxine and she sighed, "Thank you." Glancing at her watch she could see that it was 7:26 a.m, they had plenty of time to get to Sheridan College for their first class.

'Looks like William's right once again.' Thought Maxine humorously and began to walk towards the exit of the alley, where her Hyundai Alantra touring was parked. There wasn't a need to see if William was following for she knew he was. It was normal for the two of them to drive to college together as they both shared an apartment. It was less suspicious that way and easier when it came to their job.

Being the first to reach her car, Maxine opened the door and sat in the driver's seat. She shut the door and inserted her keys into the ignition; in an instant the car's engine roared to life. Reaching for the seatbelt, she buckled herself in and took of her hat. Short auburn hair tumbled down to barely reach her shoulders in messy layers. A sigh escaped the young redhead's lips and she shook her hair free of any water that accumulated from the damp hat.

There was a click and the passenger door opened. William sprawled into the seat and let out a long breath of air. "I hate the rain." He grumbled and pulled off his hood. Wet blonde hair stuck to his scalp and he grumbled even more.

Maxine giggled at her friend, "You look like you just came out of the shower just now." Her giggles soon turned to laughter as Will roughly shuffled his wet hair. Only it made it worse than fix the problem as it gave him a hairstyle Einstein would love. Locks of hair stood up on their own accord in random directions while a few stray hairs stayed glued to William's head. It was a quite the sight for Maxine because she couldn't control her laughter and was downright roaring.

"Ha ha. Very funny," William mocked, "Now how about we get to class. _Or would you rather be late_?" The last sentence was stressed to catch Maxine's attention; and it worked because she froze in her seat and revved up the engine. Shifting into gear, Maxine put the pedal to the metal (literally) and sped down the street for the nearest route to the QEW highway. If there was one thing Maxine hated: it was being late.

In the passenger seat, a smirk of victory reached William's lips and he leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed behind his head. While Maxine's stubbornness when it came to her studies was tiresome; it did have its uses at times. Especially when trying to win, or avoid arguments between them. It was a simple routine they do once every morning before driving to class. Even when it was just another day at the office for work.

**I know, I know. They didn't get sent to Middle Earth in this chapter. I have read other LotR fanfics and the Hobbit fanfics to know what happens in the first chapters of most stories. However I wanted to build some character development first before we sent our… err… anti-heroes to Middle Earth. Not to mention we need to mention Maxine's father in the next chapter and explain his back story.**

**So read, review, favourite, follow. Do whatever, I just need some feedback on this chapter.**


End file.
